Arm rests for vehicles and particularly ones that may be conveniently mounted within the window recess opening of a vehicle door frame and then removed have been known and generally available for more than sixty years. A number of such arm rests have been patented and generally such patents are directed to inventions which may be divided into two categories. A first category of arm rests are described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,650,385 to H. Payton; U.S. Pat. No. 2,670,235 to A. J. Susil; U.S. Pat. No. 2,709,620 to E. O. Tinsley et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 2,987,343 to W. P. Stern and U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,600 to P. R. Mathews. Each is directed to a vehicle arm rest designed and constructed to be positioned over the bottom portion of the window frame of a vehicle door when the window glass is in a lowered condition. Disadvantages of this type of arm rest are that it may only be used when the window glass is lowered, and the elevation of the arm rest cannot be adjusted for the comfort of a vehicle occupant. A more adaptable type of arm rest is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,984,855 to O. Zwierzina; U.S. Pat. No. 3,603,637 to J. A. DePinto; U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,878 to E. D. Horary et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,584 to P. H. White, Jr. The arm rest of each of the latter group of patents is supported only by the inner portion of a vehicle door frame and may be used with the window glass in a raised or lowered condition. In addition, the patents to Zwierzina, DePinto and Horary disclose arm rests having means for vertical adjustment.
While each of the inventions described in the above mentioned patents may be used as an arm rest for a vehicle, some under somewhat restricted conditions, with several having provisions for adjusting the height of the arm rest, each lacks the simplicity of adjustment and construction which would make them readily acceptable to a large segment of vehicle owners and operators.
In addition to the above described prior art, many, if not most, of vehicles offered for sale in the United States during the past five to ten years include arm rests on at least the front doors of the vehicles. However, these arm rests are in an arbitrarily fixed position which is many times not at the most suitable height for many vehicle occupants.